Preternatural Education
by satsumarax
Summary: AU Supernatural school fic. When you've spent your entire school life at an exclusive private school for Healers, how is one to cope when suddenly thrust into the world of *gasp* public education. Oh, and not all the students are human...
1. Chapter 1

**Preternatural Education**

Sakura sighed as she watched raindrops chase each other down the glass, nothing but darkness and trees whizzing past the window as the car drove along the winding forest road.

"I was told that it snows at Christmas here." She heard her father say, in an obvious attempt to start conversation. That would make sense, what with it now raining in summer.

"Mmm..."

"And I've heard good things about your new school." Her father prompted further, probably hoping for a bit more of a response than the unintelligible grunts she, as a teenager, communicated with.

"Whatever." Was that better? Sakura slouched into her seat further.

"I really do think you will like it in Konoha, Sakura." Wow, her dad was persistent. "Once you've settled in to our new house and you've started your new school you won't even think about that Madame Medicine place."

"Madame Medicina's," Sakura corrected her father for the umpteenth time. "is the best Healers school in the country! All the best, most successful Healers went there. If you cared anything for my future at all you would have sent me there."

"And that wouldn't have anything to with all your friends going there?"

"Well...there's that too." She said reluctantly.

"Sakura, we have been over this. You know I can't afford that school right now." Sakura noted her fathers shoulders sag slightly.

"Why'd you let me go to such a good primary school then?"

"Well, I could afford it then couldn't I." Bet her father wishes he hadn't tried to start the conversation now. "You think I wanted the company to go under, Sakura? We're lucky I was able to find another job at all, especially during these times." He took a deep breath to calm himself down before continuing. "This move is going to be difficult for both of us, Sakura. You just have to...give it a shot at least."

"I know..."Sakura said grumpily. "But dad, a public school? It's not even specialised! Its gonna be full of all...non-Healers..."

"Now Sakura, I did not raise you on such prejudices!"

"I don't mean it like that." Sakura crossed her arms. "I just mean it's going to be weird, not going to a specialised Healers school."

"Hmm..." Her father didn't seem entirely convinced, beginning to regret sending his daughter to such a snobbish school for so long. "Well, your new school is supposed to have a fairly good Healers program anyway so its not like you will be missing out on anything."

"Nah, only Madame Medicina's Academy for the Healing Arts."

"Sakura!" Her father hit the steering wheel in frustration. "If I hear one more thing about that stupid school..." He's comment faded off, leaving the car silent once more.

"It's not a stupid school." Sakura muttered feebly before staring out her window again. They were still passing nothing but trees. How big was this forest anyway?

It was quite a shock when her father lost his job. Haruno Reiji had been a very successful businessman, working long, hard hours to get to his executive position, and his family had been able to live the life of expense-free luxury. Of course, it just took one little mistake. Just one little court case and suddenly his company was no more. Gone were the large house, many cars and exclusive primary school. Now what did they have? A single car, a boot full of belonging and a rental house. Sakura's only consolation was that she was able to start High School at the same time as everyone else. She wouldn't have been able to live with herself if she had to join mid-year.

There are 3 types of educational facilities in the country. Com (Combined) schools were made up of all things supernatural. There were, of course, the Healers, the Telekenetics and the Mindbenders, all humans who had learned to tap into there magic potential, but there are also the non-humans, ie. Demons, Vampires, Spirits. Because the student range is so vast, mixed schools were known for being absolute shambles. Spec (Specialised) schools focus on only one aspect of the supernatural education. Normally quite exclusive (and expensive), the most common revolve around human "magical" learning, though Vampire academies were not unheard of. Ord (Ordinary) schools were for normal humans, those not wishing for a magical education. Though they might seem boring, Ord schools are the most common, as studying magic, especially at Com schools, come with some risks, risks that are too high for a lot of parents.

The supernatural world had not always been known by the human world. The two worlds had first collided around 120 years ago, during an event know as the …... incident. Since then, beings once thought to be mythological had slowly established themselves into human society, bringing their knowledge and culture with them. Humans, eager to advance their way of living, soon learned how they too could use the strange powers available to the "mythological" beings, by using the "magic" potential known as "chakra" found in every living thing. These new found powers did cause some trouble, started a world war or two, but over time, humans became used to using chakra, and though not everyone chose wield such abilities, it was taken for granted that if they could if they wanted.

"Are we there yet?"

"Well aren't you being the annoying eight year old in the back seat." Her dad replied, laughing to himself.

"Shut up." Sakura allowed herself to smile as she hit her fathers arm in mock annoyance. "I just meant that there has been nothing but trees for the past hour and a half. We've been driving for 7 hours already, we gotta be getting close now."

"Don't worry. It's only another 3 hours." He could not help but laugh at the look of horror on hid daughters face. "Haha! I jest! I jest!" He raised one of his arms in defence as his daughter went to hit him again. "Konoha should be coming up soon. Half an hour tops."

Sakura restrained from hitting her father again, too relieved that the horror that was this road trip was at its end.

"Unless the car breaks down or something."

"Dad! You're gonna jinx us!" She didn't restrain from hitting him this time.

"Ow! Sakura, you hit harder than you mean too!" Though her daughter was too busy giggling at her fathers pain to pay much attention. Seeing her laugh like this reminded him so much of her mother.

"DAD! WATCH OUT!"

Reiji spun his gaze back to the road ahead of them, just in time to feel the sickening bump that represented something that had once been in front of the car relocating to the back. And not just by going around, either. Slamming his foot on the breaks, Reiji made sure that the car was still in his control as it stopped before taking off his seatbelt swiftly. "Hurry up! We gotta help him!" he heard Sakura say frantically.

"What was it?" He asked his daughter, only to find that she had already left the car and was running down the road like a life depended on it. Following suit, Reiji made sure to grab his mobile phone before taking off after Sakura. He should have been looking at the road. What if he had seriously injured someone? What if they ended up as a paraplegic or something? What if they ended up dead? He had already typed the emergencies number, ready to press call, when he caught up with his daughter who was standing before the injured body of...

"A fox?" Reiji asked, feeling guilty at just how relieved he was. "Sakura, you shouldn't have yelled out like that. We might have crashed." He hadn't hit anyone. He hadn't killed anything...yet. The poor creature was still alive, but in obviously incredible pain. Its breathing was laboured, blood beginning to come from its mouth, and its back was on a strange angle. Its red eyes seemed to be watching them warily and it whimpered slightly as they got closer to it. It didn't look very good...

Reiji looked at his daughter, who was looking at the fox in horror and...confusion? After a few seconds of shock, she seemed to shake herself awake and lifted her hand in front of her. After a moment of concentration, the hand began to glow a greeny-blue colour as she knelled down to heal the fox.

Neither of them were expecting the fox to start growling and spitting as the hand got closer. Despite its poor condition, it managed to block every attempt Sakura made to get to any of its injuries with its sharp, possibly rabid teeth.

"Stop it, you stupid animal!" Sakura cried in frustration as she barely dodged another aimed bite to the hand. "I'm trying to heal you! Quit growling!"

Unfortunately, this only seemed to make the fox more determined, flattening its ears against its head, and after a couple more attempts it even managed to, somehow, get to its feet and hobble into the bushes on the side of the road, growling as it went.

Sakura stared at the spot where the fox had disappeared too in shock. What had just happened? Was she just refused treatment...by a fox?

"C'mon Sakura." She heard her dad behind her. "I left the car running. We better get back before a forest spirit steals it or something."

Not sure if he was joking or not, and not really caring, Sakura followed Raiji back to the car, her thoughts still on the injured fox. It had been hurt pretty badly. Too badly to survive, really. Why wouldn't it let her heal it?

While on the road again, Reiji noticed that his daughter was still in deep thought.

"Don't worry about it, Sakura." He said, hopefully reassuringly. "Animals can be very protective, especially when injured. It didn't know you were trying to help."

Sakura knew her father was right. She had dealt with enough injured animals at her last school to know just how aggressive they could be but...for some reason it seemed different. The way it seemed fine with their presence until after she tried to heal it. The way it did the impossible and stood to get away, everything on weird angles and...wrong. And also the fact that she was sure that she had seen a person run in front of the car, just as her dad had been distracted. A person with blond hair and whiskered cheeks...

[End Chapter 1/Prologue]

A/N: Yay! First chapter of first fanfic! I am quite excited, though I have no presumptions on anyone actually reading this. There must be so many excellent stories out there with no reviews, and mine is far from excellent so it is only fair. If you did read this, however, and wish to review be my guest. It would probably make me jump up (and down) 12 times in joy.

To be honest, I only have a slight idea of where I want this story to go. Concepts, characters (though I have no idea what Shino could be/do. Any ideas?), bits for the next chapter and some cool scene ideas that I'll probably try and put in somewhere (if I end up writing any more. I really hope I do. It has been plaguing my dreams for weeks/months now).

Also, with /'s in mind, any relationships will be entirely BYO context...hopefully. Sorry if this saddens anyone...

((I have no idea what I'm doing...any help is appreciated.))


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer(because I forgot in the last chapter): **I do not own Naruto...at all. Even my au storyline is too cliched to be mine. I own nothing. :P

Chapter 2

Sakura stood before her new school, a look of both amazement and disgust upon her face. It was both as she had expected and not at the same time. The school was made up of lots of different buildings, none of which seeming to match with each other. Some buildings looked like they were meant to be used as a temporary accommodation, possibly while other classrooms were being built, but there was no apparent construction occurring and the buildings had obviously been there for numerous years.

Students were everywhere, a cacophony of noises and colours. The lack of a school uniform was definitely something she was going to have to get used to, as well as the general behaviour of the students. It was, like, no-one cared about the schools image, or that a teacher might tell them off for talking too loudly.

[i]At least nothing's on fire...except that guys hair.[/i] Sakura noted as a group of older students passed her. Ones hair seemed to be MADE of fire, and his eyes glowed a strange yellow colour. None of his friends seemed to find this out of the ordinary at all, and another even appeared to have a tail.

Okay, so that was another thing she was going to have to get used to. She wasn't at a specialised school any more. Not every student at this school is going to be human. She knew this, but that didn't stop her from watching in awe as a pair of transparent girls chatted animatedly to each other as they passed through the closed doors of one the buildings, or as a bus dropped off a large number of people with green skin.

"Well...this seems nice." Her father said reassuringly, leaning on the old car he had driven her to school in. Though she only lived a twenty minute walk away from the school, Sakura did not feel that she knew the area well enough just yet, and Reiji did not have to work until Wednesday. Though she was a bit embarrassed to be seen with her father on the first day of school, she was happy to have a familiar presence.

"Did you want me to help you find your classroom, Sakura?" Okay, so a familiar presence in the car park only was enough for her.

"I'm not a baby, dad! I can find it myself."

"No, you're not a baby any more." Her father said kindly, ruffling her hair in a way she was sure he did just to annoy her. "You're a high school student now. Big step, huh?" He smiled down at his daughter.

"Yeah, whatever." She replied, her father laughing as she took her first steps into the great unknown.

It was a strange feeling, going from grade six, the eldest and most respected students in primary school, to year seven, the lowest of the low in high school. Being the youngest in the school again was going to suck, but at least she knew she wouldn't be the only one that would have to go through it.

The car door slammed harshly behind a platinum blonde pre-teen.

"Could you drive any slower?" The girl seemed to screech, as an older, male, version of herself exited the car himself.

"The speed limit has..." The blond adult was cut short by another shriek however.

"The limit was 70! Not 50!"

"There...could have been ducks on the road."

"Gah! I am SO not related to you!" The girl through her arms into the air in frustration before storming towards the school.

Sighing heavily, though a obvious smile playing on his lips, the older blond walked over to a pair of adults, one sporting a heavily scarred face and black ponytail while the other was large, with coloured swirls adorning his cheeks, just as 2 apparently smaller versions of the pair made their own way into the school.

"She seemed happy." Laughed the overweight man, a look of jolly amusement on his face.

"She must be excited about starting school." The blonde man replied. "She forgot that she was giving me the silent treatment for accidentally logging onto her facebook."

The 2 adults looked at their blond friend suspiciously, who squirmed slightly under their gaze.

"I had to make sure she wasn't talking to any strange men."

...

"Ah...Speaking of strange men, aren't you up early?" The blond said, turning towards the scarred man in a obvious attempt to divert attention.

"Yeah, you're normally fast asleep at this time." The jolly man supplied, deciding to give his blond friend a break.

"Tsk." Was the scarred man's only response as the other men started laughing at his expense, though a slight lift at the corner of his mouth showed that he was entirely insulted.

At the front of the school, a pair of brunettes appeared to be in a heated staring competition. Red triangle upon both their cheeks, the smaller had to lift his head to look into the older females eyes, but didn't seem to be intimidated by this fact at all.

"I'm not doing it." The younger of the two said angrily, his slitted eyes still not breaking contact with the older female. "Try and make me and I'll just tell mum."

"You'll do it or I'll tell mum who broke the microwave." The elder replied calmly, a conniving smile starting to grace her features as the younger grit his teeth.

"Then I'll tell her about the phone bill." He said loudly, though it was obvious his confidence in the situation was wavering slightly.

"And then I'll tell her about the chicken bones" the boy winced, "and it will just be a vicious cycle that will lead to both of our early departures from this world at the hands of our mother OR you can just be a man and do everything I say."

Scowling furiously, the young boy finally broke eye-contact with his sister, shoulders slumping in defeat.

"You're just lucky I value my life more than you do, or that threat won't work." He said sullenly, trying not to look as his sister did a small victory dance. "Hurry up, will you! I don't want to be late for my first day."

"Your fault for making me walk to school with you." she replied teasingly, but stopped her strange dance as she moved to remove something from her bag.

The boy growled slightly as he snatched the pile of photos his sister, not bothering to look at them, and moved to put them in his bag. "You know, this whole stalking thing is going to really bite you in the butt one day."

"Oh, I hope so." The female replied, smiling cheerily as her brother spluttered at the unwanted imagery. "Just keep them in your locker. Mum won't think to search yours."

"Yeah, wateva." The boy said angrily, swinging his bag back onto his shoulder, already thinking of ways to get back at his older sister as he stormed into the school grounds. At least now he had the upper hand in blackmailing...

Two figures stared at each other through round sunglasses.

They didn't move very much.

They didn't say anything.

They just looked at each other.

…

After a moment the smaller of the two walked away towards the school.

An old man stood at the window at the top of the tallest building in the school, looking down at the campus below, arms crossed behind his back in what could have been a slightly threatening posture whilst in his youth. As he observed the students below, he smiled to himself.

"We have an interesting bunch of first years this year." He said softly, that would have seemed like he was talking to himself if not for the other 2 occupants in the room.

There was a snort of amusement from a couch in the corner, where a younger in comparison but still oldish man was sprawled haphazardly.

"You say that every year, sensei."

The old man blinked, still looking out the window. "Do I?"

"Oh man, now you're going senile, old man." The white haired man on the couch turned to the apparently much younger blonde woman leaning arms crossed against the wall. "Is that something you can fix, or would it be too much of a strain on your old bones?"

The blonde woman's eyes seemed to glint with anger. "I'll fix you in a minute." She said in a low, threatening voice.

"I can ask one of your students to do it maybe?" The white man continued, apparently unaware of the killing intent filling the room. "One of the seniors perhaps? Could ask her to help out with my research. Gotta have curves though, and big b-"

The old man at the window rolled his eyes as his office was practically torn apart. He would of found it amusing if he hadn't known that he would have be the one to clean up afterwards, whether he was principle or not.

It took a while to locate her classroom. Even with a map, Sakura was sure she would have gotten lost, if it wasn't for the signs pointing the way for the poor geographically challenged year 7s. The signs were just temporary, coloured poster paper with cheerful writing that could only be produced by a very optimistic member of staff. Many of them were already riddled with graffiti, and one was even charred around the edges. Maybe she had been a bit early with her "no fires" presumption.

She did finally find the area where all the first years classrooms were. It was like they were trying to separate the new students from the rest of the student body as much as possible. Sakura vaguely wondered whether this was to stop bad influences...or whether it was for the first years protection. She hoped the former.

Even though the bell wasn't due to ring for another 15 minutes, the area was still full of people. So maybe Sakura wasn't the only one anxious about her first day of High School. She saw that there seemed to be a gathering around a wall with paper on it. As she got closer she realised that it was the class allocations. After finding her name and class allocation, Sakura soon found herself standing in the doorway of her new homeroom, taking in the students that were to be her classmates for the next year.

It...wasn't as bad as she had expected. Okay, the noise level was atrociously high and some of the tables seemed to have been moved but...the tables weren't upturned and on fire. The students...were interesting. 2 appeared to be flouting in the air and one girl had the same green skin as the ones that got off the bus, but other than this the majority appeared to be human. Sakura didn't want to admit just how relieved this made her. She wouldn't have know how to react if half the class had wings or horns or the head of an animal or...fish tails. She didn't know! She hadn't had to deal with non-humans before.

Falling heavily into a chair (one that wasn't tipped over), Sakura tried to sort her mind out a bit. She wasn't freaking out. No, she had expected this much. It was better than expected. She wasn't about to die. She was totally in her element here.

"Oi, Pinky."

Sakura couldn't help but yelp slightly as someone close by spoke loudly, and apparently they were speaking to her. She looked up to see a trio of girls, the seeming leader sporting short purple hair and an unfriendly face.

"Who the hell are you and what is up with your hair?"

On a good day, Sakura may have been able to retaliate, possibly pointing out the girls own unnaturally coloured hair or the strange orange afro that one of her lackeys seemed adorn with pride, but her mind wasn't ready for this. Too much was happening. New town, new school, new entire lifestyle and now...new doubts. What was wrong with her hair? Was it the colour? Maybe the cut was out of date here or something.

"I..umm..." She stuttered, trying to think of something, anything, to say.

"If your trying to deflect attention away from your forehead, I'm sorry but that task is impossible."

Sakura's hand flew up to her forehead, checking that it was the same it was when she looked this morning. How did they know she doubted her forehead so much? Just when she had spent years convincing herself that its size wasn't really noticeable, and she was stressing for no reason. Well...now seemed like a good reason to stress. She felt her head dip slightly in defeat as she gave up trying to make literate words leave her mouth.

"What? You're dumb too?" The purple haired girl continued relentlessly. "God, do you even have anything going for you?"

"Oh, shut up Ami." Came an unfamiliar voice, for somewhere behind Sakura. "My morning has been bad enough without having to hear your annoying voice."

Sakura swivelled around carefully, catching sight of the platinum blonde female, who seemed to bee emitting confidence in waves.

"This is none of your business, Ino." The purple haired monster said loudly, her lackeys standing taller to back her up.

"Do I look like I care?" The blonde sat heavily on the table next to where Sakura was sitting. A small smile was on her face, but her eyes were harsh with anger. The purple haired girl seemed to flinch slightly before regaining her cool.

"You're not acting very smart, Ino." The girl pouted slightly, crossing her arms. "First day of high school is like a new start. We don't have to always be at odds, ya know. Really, it's your last chance to be friends."

The blonde snorted slightly. "Yeah, so you can stab me in the back like everyone else? Stop attacking people weaker than yourself and I might actually consider you less of an embarrassment for humanity."

Ami looked as if she was blowing up like a red balloon, her head looking almost ready to burst in anger. She seemed to avoid this, possibly messy, occurrence, however, taking deep breaths before replying.

"You want an enemy? Your loss. You will regret this though." And the trio seemed to turn in unison and retreat into some unseen corner of the classroom. The blonde waited until they were out of view before letting her shoulders drop tiredly and turning to the pinkette beside her, who was still holding her forehead and shaking slightly out of shock. Sighing slightly, Ino put a hand under the pink haired girls chin and lifted her head slightly so that she could see her face.

"Look into my eyes." She said lazily.

As green met pupil-less blue, Sakura felt as if a weight lifted off of her entire body. Suddenly most of the doubt and fear she had felt seconds ago disappeared. What was all that about? Why did she react so badly to that annoying girls taunts? It wasn't like she hadn't had to put up with bullies before, they're present at every school, both public and private. And really, the taunts wern't even witty. It was all very stupid. She had a sudden feeling of embarrassment over the whole situation.

"Oh man!" She hit her head in frustration, turning to the blonde and smiling. "That was embarrassing. Thanks for helping."

The blonde seemed to study her for a second before smiling herself. "No probs. I was in most of the same classes as her in Primary School, so I know how to deal with her."

"I really don't know what came over me." Sakura shook her head slight, as if that would shake away all her confusion.

"It could have happened to anyone. She's trying to train in mind control, but the only thing she can actually do is control emotions." The blonde continued to smile, even as Sakura seemed to pale slightly at the mention of mind control. "She doesn't want people to know she is useless so she makes them feel as useless as her." Sakura couldn't help but be surprised at the casual tone the blonde was using.

"Anyway, she only would have sought you out like that if she thought you were a threat, and any threat to Ami is a friend of mine. The name's Yamanaka Ino. You?"

"Haruno Sakura." Sakura smiled, both relieved and wary that she had met at least one person to talk to.

"Sakura, you're not from around here, are yah?"

Sakura laughed nervously. "It's that obvious, isn't it?" Ino laughed good naturedly.

"Just little things really. You didn't go to my old school, and you're by yourself so you have no friends yet. But mostly, that colour was the it thing last summer, making it officially uncool now. Only an outsider would be caught dead wearing it."

"Gee thanks for that." Sakura pouted, though knew that the comment was "mostly" in jest, probably to break the ice. There was nothing wrong with her clothes. Nothing... "That's coming from the person wearing purple. That shade hasn't been in since the 90's."

"Hey!" The blonde seemed to expand with "fake" anger. "I can at least think of a worse shade of purple."

Both girls looked simultaneously to the back corner, where Ami and her "friends" were sitting, and laughed.

[END CHAPTER 2]

A/N: Yay! Second chapter. Had no idea where to end. Here is good enough. Please review. Also, if anyone has any suggestions, whether it be storyline-wise, character-wise or even writing-skills-wise, it would be greatly appreciated and considered.

Main question: What should I do about perspectives? Keep it all Sakura's POV or switch it around? Played around with it in this chap but still can't decide...


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